Spicy 5th Avenue Chandelier Day

Jane woke up the other morning out of sorts. She was teary eyed and asking to stay home. I realize that a lot of mothers would say “suck it up” and send the kid anyway because in all likelihood, they’re getting played. But Jane has always been the eternal dose of morning sunshine in our house. She usually springs out of bed, dresses herself (which is a creative endeavor that I don’t usually interfere with unless it involves more than three patterns), and gives out hugs.

Clearly, she needed a mental health day.

We took our time with breakfast, and watched cartoons, and then we took the train to 5th Avenue. I needed to return some ill-thought-out Anthropologie sale purchases. We saw Jenna Bush, and while I’ve been in New York long enough to be calm about famous people, I still couldn’t help myself and snapped a picture. I like Jenna.

Afterward we wandered into Free People, and when Jane spotted the chandeliers she paused, and stated loudly, “WOW. Look at those spicy chandeliers. I bet they cost a lot of cheese.”

Then she proceeded to pull a dress off the rack and exclaim, “NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL FASHION.”

Again, a phrase never before passed from my lips.

From there we moved on to the windows at Saks. While examining an Alexander McQueen dress I asked her, “Isn’t that beautiful?” And she shook her head and said, “I think they overdid it.”

Clearly, Jane is barreling toward the age of 15 far more quickly than I ever imagined.

On our way back to the subway we passed an all-men choir practicing outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“Why are there no girls?” she asked, arms crossed.

“Sometimes choirs have all girls, and sometimes they’re all boys, and sometimes they’re both,” I explained.

“They need girls,” she responded.

I decided to change the subject to something less gender-inflamed, and pointed to St. Patrick’s and said, “Someday you’ll read books by a man named Fitzgerald. He got married here.”

She gazed up at the church, frowned, and said, “Well, I’m not getting married here. I’m going to have a dog.”

Then we visited American Girl, bought a doll outfit that cost more than my returned Anthropologie shirts, went home and Jane created her own choir where everyone was welcome, complete with dogs and stage lights.

It seems like she has some solid life plans.

Spicy chandeliers.

Lots of cheese.

Singing.

Dogs.

P.S. I’m dipping my toe back into social media maintenance and have a public Facebook page now. It’s a good place to contact me for now, or keep up with the other places I’m writing these days. Come say hi here.